The United Nations has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. What does this mean? And why does it matter here on Guam? To answer these questions, I turned to three sources: Wade Davis, an anthropologist and an explorer with the National Geographic Society; Joshua Fishman, a linguist who specialized in the sociology of language; and the history of the Martyrs of Dhaka, a group in Bangladesh who gave their lives to preserve their language. All three help to illustrate the importance of CHamoru revitalization in the Marianas.
The passion: Wade Davis
Davis is a scientist and a poet. His TED Talk "Dreams from Endangered Cultures" is fascinating and reminds us about the urgency of protecting, revitalizing and respecting the way of life of peoples whose wisdom, knowledge and traditions for relating to their reality can enrich us all. He has collected and organized a wealth of information about languages in danger of extinction.
He warns us: “Genocide, the physical extinction of a people is universally condemned, but ethnocide, the destruction of a people’s way of life, is not only not condemned, (it is) in many quarters celebrated as part of a development strategy.” He reminds us that “a language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. A language is a flash of the human spirit. It’s a vehicle through which the soul of each culture comes into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed, a thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities.”
The knowledge: Joshua Fishman
Fishman invented the sociology of languages. He published hundreds of books and thousands of articles which provide us a thoughtful, persuasive path for our journey to revitalize our mother tongue.
His essay "What Do You Lose When You Lose Your Language?" urges us to recognize that “most of the culture is in the language and is expressed in the language. Take it away from the culture, and you take away its greetings, its curses, its praises, its laws, its literature, its songs, its riddles, its proverbs, its cures, its wisdom, its prayers. The culture could not be expressed and handed on in any other way. What would be left? When you are talking about the language, most of what you are talking about is the culture.”
The worldwide struggle: The Martyrs of Dhaka
Learning how much some groups have suffered and sacrificed to keep their language alive in their culture can inspire others to pursue revitalization in their own heritage homelands. The struggle to have Bangla recognized as an official language in East Pakistan led to student protests in 1952. On Feb. 21, the military opened fire. Several of the protesters were killed. The Language Movement and those deaths fueled Bangladesh’s war for independence from West Pakistan. The website Rising from the East notes: “In the world's history, no other nation has had to struggle so much, shed so much blood, to be able to hang onto their right to speak their Mother Tongue.”
In 1999, UNESCO recognized the Bangla Language Movement by declaring Feb. 21, World Mother Language Day. UNESCO went on to declare 2008 International Year of Languages, beginning on International Mother Language Day in honor of the protesters who died in Dhaka, now the capital city of Bangladesh.
Here on Guam, let’s celebrate this Year of Indigenous Languages by listening to Davis, reading the words of Fishman, and learning about those who gave their lives to preserve their language and culture. Let’s put our minds together to explore steps to revitalize CHamoru in the Marianas. Let’s create and foster language platforms for CHamoru speakers to teach their babies and toddlers their indigenous language. We must ensure that the CHamoru language and culture will live for generations to come!
